Running For Miss Albertville: A Once In A Lifetime Experience

Even though we have only had a few events so far in the candidacy, I can already say that this has been a monumental experience for me. Every minute of the candidacy has been a blast and I know that it will only get better as time goes on and as all of the candidates are able to become closer.

 I have to admit, at the very first meeting for the Miss Albertville candidacy, I was a bit overwhelmed. The committee did an excellent job of making the candidacy sound fun, but there are a lot of events for the candidates to attend. Although all of the events sounded fun and I knew it would be a great experience, the whole process sounded a little scary to me, because I have never done anything like this before. I was hesitant to sign up but all of the girls were so nice and encouraged me to join--which I am so glad they did.

 Our first event was the candidate bowling. I was really excited for this event! I posted out of high school full time my junior and senior year to the University of Minnesota- Twin Cities, and although I am still involved in school activities, I do not get to see all of my classmates very often. I already knew a lot of the girls who were running for Miss Albertville from school, so I was excited to catch up with everyone. Plus it was just two weeks after prom so all of the girls were able to talk about that :)

 Bowling was a blast! We all got our cute Royalty t-shirts and then got to bowl. I am a terrible bowler--my average score is an 18! So I was thrilled to see that we all got to have bumpers! I still didn't bowl a very high score, but that didn't really matter. Whether someone knocked down 3 pins in a frame or got a strike, everyone was cheering regardless of the score. By the end of the event, no one was even looking at the scores. Everyone was just talking and getting to know one another better. I was on a lane with 3 other candidates (Brittney, Kiara & Alysia) and a former princess from the year before (Rachel). I did not know everyone on my lane very well, but that didn't matter. Soon enough, we were all talking like we'd been best friends for years. Talking about school, boys, plans for college, and our excitement for the candidacy. I was pretty sad when the event was over, but I was anxious for our next event, to be able to see all of the candidates again!

 Our second event was Beauty Tips and Etiquette Night, which I was excited for, but a bit nervous for, too. I had never attended something like this before, but it was great to see everyone again. We all listened to Mrs. Minnesota 2006 Angela Hosman talk to us about tips on how to act in front of the judges and during our interview. She taught us how to dress, how to fix our hair and suggested natural make up--she even instructed us on how to eat! Overall, every single one of Angela's tips were extremely helpful. Angela was very friendly and polite. She was a great person to give us tips for beauty and etiquette due to her prior experiences in pageants. Plus, she just oozed confidence! I could tell that she loves doing pageants--win or lose. That was one thing that I found extremely helpful during the event. Angela made the point very clear that no matter who wins, don't take it personally. Every judge looks for something different in everyone every year, and this just may or may not be your year. It was nice to hear advice from someone who'd ran multiple times for a crown and who had won some and lost some--and she was totally okay with that.

While we all just sat there and listened to what she had to say, there was never a dull moment. Angela made the event fun and casual--as if we were all a bunch of girlfriends just hanging out and exchanging beauty tips for the evening. I sat in my chair listening intently with a smile on my face for the whole evening.

 The night took a turn soon after Angela left. Not necessarily a turn for the worse, though (we were lucky that no one was harmed during the storm). We could all see outside of the windows as the sky turned from a beautiful blue to a dark gray. Suddenly hail began to fall and soon the small hail got bigger… and bigger… and BIGGER. One of the Kelly's (Kelly Myers and Kelly Duncan) looked outside in the hallway to see what the other guests at the hotel were doing. Since large windows covered the walls in our room, we decided it was probably not safe to stay there, because there was a tornado warning. So, we all went into a small, one stall bathroom-- a box of cookies in hand! Although the bathroom was not the ideal hang out for the evening-- it was quite a momentous night. The bathroom was cramped full of 8 candidates as well as the two Kelly's (one of the candidates, Danielle, had to leave earlier in the evening because she was feeling ill). As soon as we all piled into the bathroom, cell phones started going off. Each girl had a family member calling to make sure that everyone was okay. We were all instructed to just hang out longer until the storm passed. And although I was tired from working all day, I was more than happy to stay and hang out with everyone :)

 We finally decided to ditch the bathroom-- it was getting warm and there was nowhere to sit, except for on the toilet (which is kind of gross). We all ran over to the breakfast room where tables with chairs were set up and the TV was on with the weather forecast. A lot of the hotel’s guests crowded the halls joking with us about our evening--I'm sure it was a little strange to see a bunch of Royalty Candidates running down the hallway with a box of cookies and a tray of vegetables in hand. We all just waited in the breakfast room, chatting and catching up. I got to know all of the girls even better during that event! I remember at one point, a small group of us were talking to one of the candidates (Mary) and suddenly she was just gone! I didn't even know where she went-- she was fast as lightning! But just as soon as she had left, Mary was back again with large pieces of hail slowly melting in her hands. She was so excited to share them with the group and everyone huddled around her to look at the massive hail. I'm not sure I'd even seen such large hail before--perhaps because I've never been brave enough to run out in a storm to grab a piece of hail myself :)

 Of course we had to take a picture with all of the candidates along with Mary's massive pieces of hail with the TV in the background displaying the color red in the St. Michael area. Although it was a severe storm, the Miss Albertville candidates and committee made the best of it! We turned a scary storm into a funny, exciting and momentous night! The storm passed fairly fast, and the Kelly's told us that the girls in the St. Michael/Albertville area were allowed to leave, but that the Otsego girls should stay just a bit longer to be on the safe side. Of course, all of the girls decided to stay to hang out even longer. After enough time, it was safe for everyone to leave and as we all walked out to our cars. I noticed the sky was the oddest color I've ever seen. It was like a combination of pink and orange and brown. The air was humid, yet it was a nice night. I went over to my car and noticed some hail damage on the hood. I yelled over to another candidate (Alysia) and she told me that she had damage to her car, too. Luckily, the damage on my car wasn't very bad, and honestly, I wasn't even that upset over it. I guess it's just kind of my little "souvenir" from Beauty Tips and Etiquette Night.

 Our most recent event was our Interview and Lunch with the judges. I have to say this was the one event that I was the most nervous for. I (along with another candidate, Jessica) had to come a little bit late because we had a mandatory National Honor Society Car Wash that benefited cystic fibrosis from 10-11 AM and the lunch started at 11 AM. So after a fun morning washing and drying cars (Jessica and I helped dry off the cars and by the end of our shift I was a professional at squeegee-ing windows while Jessica was an expert on drying the cars with towels). As soon as the clock turned to 11, Jessica and I hurried out of there-- even though there was a car that we were in the middle of drying (luckily, there were 4 other guys there to finish drying the car and the car belonged to a friend, so he understood why we were in such a hurry). It actually later became a joke between the guys about how Jessica and I left in the middle of our job drying the car :)

 As soon as we were done at the car wash, we both went to our houses and quickly changed and fixed our hair and make up. Of course it was a rainy day, so my hair was ruined and frizzy and my make up was fading. I figured it was okay though-- I definitely had the "natural" make up look going on :) But after rushing to get ready and adjusting my sash, I made it to the lunch around 11:30 AM-- not too bad. I was a bit intimidated upon entering the room. Everyone was already seated and deep into conversation, but I was quickly seated and introduced to the judge sitting at my table. I ate my salad quietly as I kept spilling my lettuce onto the table! Knowing that most likely wasn't proper "etiquette", I shoved the pieces of lettuce that had fallen on the table inside of my napkin, so I could hide the evidence that I was being a bit of a messy eater. I wasn't able to use my napkin, but I don't think anyone noticed!  :) After eating my salad--which really hit the spot--our next judge sat down and we were served our main course: chicken Alfredo, vegetables and a roll.

 I ate pretty much all of my vegetables and I ate the roll which was my favorite part of the meal. But I felt bad for not eating all of my Alfredo. I ate all of the chicken and a few strands of pasta. The committee member who was sitting at my table (Darcie) asked me why I wasn't eating my Alfredo and if I didn't like it. I felt bad-- I had been caught! But I just explained to her and the judge that I had gotten food poisoning after eating chicken Alfredo years prior and have never been able to really eat it since (although from the few bites I had, this Alfredo was excellent)! Nervous that may be considered rude I was pleasantly surprised to hear that the judge and Darcie could relate to my story. It ended up transitioning our conversation to personal stories of foods that we no longer like due to food poisoning experiences from the past.

 After our main course, we switched judges and committee members again. We all sat down to dessert--cake and ice cream! The dessert was excellent! After that, the judges left and went into another room and the candidates were able to make our posters for our cars that will be in the Albertville parade. A lot of the girls' signs turned out outstanding! I am not a very artsy person, so my bubble letters weren't quite as neat as some of the others, but I was pleased with the outcome of my posters. Finally, it was my time to go in for my interview for the judges and I was beyond nervous. But after answering the first question, it wasn't so bad. In fact, I felt as though I probably was talking too fast (whoops!) and I just wanted to keep on talking. When the judges told me they had no further questions for me, I almost wanted to just keep on talking and talking. I felt so at ease-- all of the judges were so nice!

 After my interview, the girls made our Rock - A - Thon poster and after we were all finished with that, I was still not ready to go home. I looked outside of the window and noticed how yucky the weather was! It was gray and rainy and damp. I said, "Caribou Coffee sounds really good right now!" and Jessica agreed. We decided to stop at Caribou afterwards. We invited everyone to come with but only 2 other girls were able to go--Alysia and Mary. We went to Caribou and all ordered white chocolate mochas (except for Jessica), which we all thought was ironic and funny. Then we all just sat there and chatted about life and the candidacy. I can truly say going to Caribou with those 3 girls was probably the high light of my entire day. It was so nice to be able to sit down and get to know them better. We chatted for over an hour and then it was time for us to go home (Jessica and I had yet another National Honor Society event to attend that night and Alysia and Mary had prior commitments at home).

 After Caribou, I called my family to tell them about my day (they had gone to Mall of America for the afternoon). I told them how much fun I'd had and all of the great friends I had made! I kept on rambling and finally my mother told me that she had to go-- but that didn't stop me from telling her even more about my day once she got home that evening :)

 All in all, running for Miss Albertville has been a life changing experience for me. Although I feel likes it's just begun, I feel like I have already made a lot of wonderful friends! Every single girl in the program is so nice and caring toward one another. It has been so nice to build these relationships. Even though we didn't start the candidacy as best friends, we have all grown so close so fast! It has been nice to get to know girls who may have different interests than me yet we can still find a common bond. I cannot wait for our future events in the candidacy and for the memories that will come from each event. Win or lose, I am honored to have been a part of the Miss Albertville candidacy, because I truly feel that it has lifelong benefits. Not only have I met knew friends but I have also become more outgoing and confident during this whole experience. This is a wonderful and unique opportunity that I would encourage all girls to do!

 As Angela Hosman told us during our Beauty Tips and Etiquette Night, all that we can do is be ourselves. Everyone has something special to offer. Whether or not that something special is what the judges are looking for in Miss Albertville for the summer of 2011, it doesn't matter. I am just glad that this candidacy has helped me realize how special I am and now I'm able to let myself shine in my own unique way.

 Thank you for reading—I hope that you enjoyed reading my blog as much as I enjoyed writing it!! :)

Kelly - A 2011 Miss Albertville Candidate